216225dippedThe light of the moment shook at random, overas she took up herbrush again, hither & thither, lighting first the a stretch of road & twoMinta Doyle's walking [?] back; Then, having seen the thing, (it was&thus her memory worked) she heard voices; then she recalled the wholehow once, she had walked up from the beach with William Bankes;behind Minta who had a hole in her stocking. Now his eyesitselfkept it seemed to flaunt before them - how he deplored it - without,as far as she could remember, saying anything!And as sheall he mostdetested;to himstrode in front of themIt meantruindirt disorder; a home withservants leaving & beds not made at midday - all things thatbills, perhaps, unpaid - all things he abhorred.AsPerhaps it was true.In fact,she believed, the marriage had been at first quite There was someof the stockingtruth in that vision on the sandy path going up from thebeach all those years ago - The marriage at first had beensuccessful at first.There were two little boys.Then things workedloose - They came home at such different hours, from different places.Lily imagined them meeting on the stairs - Minta garish,wreathed & tinted, about three o'clock in the morning.Tofinish the picture Paul carrying a poker, in case of burglars,Minta eating a sandwich, in the cadaverous early morninglight on a staircase with holes in the carpet, dusty she ?worn littered.What did they say? Something violent. He was withered,drawn; she was flamboyant careless.She ate her sandwichwhile he spoke - in a mutter, so as not to wake the children.That was the sort of thing had happened, she supposed, painting;This is what we call 'knowing' people, she thought.This is what wecallis 'thinking' about them.

Then again: Another incident struck her, came to mind - Paulsaying that he "played chess in coffee houses".She alwaysremembered it. For He wandered off: he was solitary. It is
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